Ian Cushing

@iancushing.bsky.social

Reader in Critical Applied Linguistics, Manchester Metropolitan University. Documenting and dismantling linguistic injustice in schools. Editor, Critical Studies in Education. Leverhulme Prize 2026-2029.
https://www.mmu.ac.uk/staff/profile/dr-ian-cushing

@eicathomefinn.bsky.socialReposted by @iancushing.bsky.social

'The University of Nottingham has confirmed that it will close its music and languages departments as it presses ahead with more than 500 job cuts despite widespread opposition from staff and students.' A blight on East Midlands and UK higher education.

@iancushing.bsky.social

i am working on some transcript data of a teacher telling a group of children that they must 'speak in full sentences' in which he pauses, coughs, says errm a lot, repeats words, apologises, gets confused, is confusing, and my god how is this idea of 'speak in full sentences' still alive

@isabellefk.bsky.socialReposted by @iancushing.bsky.social

“Schools become sites of linguistic sanctuary … There would be a moratorium on classroom tools that function as powerful mechanisms of linguistic injustice [eg] AI, standardised testing, punitive discipline policies & commercially produced curricula”

Yes please 🙏

#postnormalpossibilities

@iancushing.bsky.social

schools are one of the most efficient and well-oiled spaces for maintaining linguistic injustice, but they can also be radical spaces for imagining otherwise. in this work in Applied Linguistics i offer some design principles for institutional linguistic justice in schools.🌸

doi.org/10.1093/appl...